How do newly established species interact with existing assemblage members to alter local biodiversity? This question is especially topical given growing concerns about increased temporal turnover levels relative to background rates. My PhD thesis concerns young, isolated pines Pinus elliottii invading the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) as a study system to test the hypothesis that the impact of newly established individuals varies across habitat layers. I sampled both vegetation layers (shrub and grass) of two distinct habitats, the shrub-dominated campo sujo and the grass-dominated campo úmido. My results show that the pine is changing α diversity in the dominant vegetation layer of each habitat: the shrub layer of campo sujo and the grass layer of campo úmido. The shape of the diversity v. establishment time relationship is habitat dependent; there is a hump shaped relationship between diversity and pine size in the grass layer but a linear one in the shrub layer. β diversity metrics – which take species composition into account - reveal marked differences in species composition between the habitats in the shrub layer, whereas the corresponding pair of invaded and control sites of the same habitat and layer is more similar than expected (in both vegetation layers). The degree of similarity between sites also changes as the invasion proceeds. In the campo sujo habitat, sites become more compositionally distinct, whereas in the grass layer of campo úmido sites get more similar. This suggests that the timing of changes in species composition is habitat-dependent and reinforces the need to remove the invader individuals from the area. My results show that, though complex, the consequences for local biodiversity of non-native species establishment are not haphazard. As such they contribute to the understanding of species coexistence and help explain why species invasion can lead to very different biodiversity outcomes.

The pedracista electoral coalition that was formed in Mexico during the 1828 presidential elections was deliberately ignored by the traditional historiography of the early national period. Instead it concentrated on the leaders of the liberal struggle, deeming this alliance unworthy of study. There were essentially two key reasons why this happened. On the one hand, General Manuel Gómez Pedraza (1789-1851) was not an archetypal liberal patriot in the mould of those heroes that were exalted and written about by Mexico’s Porfirian and PRIísta historians. His politics were associated with a certain ideological indeterminateness as a result of his moderate stance, proving problematic to historians who were intent on developing a liberal and subsequently post-revolutionary historia patria. On the other hand, the official historiography accepted, unquestioningly, the critical version of his actions that his opponents circulated at the time. As a result of this, the yorkino version of the events is the one that prevailed, casting Pedraza in the role of staunch anti-yorkino in a simplistic bipartisan vision of Mexican politics that depicted the political tensions of the time as a clear-cut confrontation between the pedracista aristocrats and the democratic yorkino followers of mulatto hero of the War of Independence, General Vicente Guerrero (1783-1831). This two-dimensional dichotomy has only recently started to be nuanced by the revisionist historiography of the last thirty years. This has been due, in great measure, to the fact that the traditional interpretation of the pedracista coalition posed a number of significant problems when attempting to understand the political behaviour of the people involved. Above all, it was an interpretation that proved incapable of explaining how such a variety of political tendencies, represented by those individuals who joined the alliance that backed Pedraza’s presidential candidacy, could have come together; i.e., anti-masonic groups, the imparciales, certain yorkinos and former escoceses. This thesis aims to explain what brought these individuals, whose political ideas were ostensibly incompatible, together, in what resulted in a particularly resourceful and successful electoral force. The pedracista coalition represented the first political formation in Mexico that came together specifically to win a presidential election. It was one which set out to bring an end to the political interference of Masonic societies in Mexico, and in particular, that of the Rite of York lodges. It also challenged the yorkinos’ electoral campaign by criticising their leader, Guerrero, and, by highlighting the negative aspects of their Masonic faction. It pointed out, moreover, the dangers inherent in a central administration led by guerrerista yorkinos and, in so doing, made clear the problems that were to be found in the political ideas these individuals stood for, depicting them as partisan, ignorant, and representative of the popular classes. The pedracista coalition argued that the presidency needed to go to someone who did not belong to any particular party, who was virtuous, who was renowned for being hard-working and energetic in government, and who belonged to the exclusive circles frequented by the “hombres de bien”. Given that Pedraza won the elections, it is evident that his coalition benefited from a constitutional structure that favoured his candidacy, gaining, at the same time, the public validation of the governmental authorities in place at the time. However, Pedraza’s candidacy was defeated by the armed mobilizations that ensued in the pronunciamientos pro-yorkino followers launched from October to November 1828, and was consequently eliminated from the political scene until late 1832 given that the leaders of the imparciales as well as Pedraza himself chose not to fight back or support a counter-revolution. During the electoral campaign, the pedracista coalition displayed, with astounding clarity, what it thought were the essential qualities a president needed to possess and, likewise presented a distinctive appreciation of how it thought the Mexican political class should behave. In this sense, the coalition’s views, captured in its votes, networks and press articles, offer a fascinating snapshot of what were the fundamental themes of the Mexican republic during its formative years as a nation-state, and how this ignored political grouping interpreted them. Of particular interest is the manner in which the pedracista coalition explored the ways in which political legitimacy, participation and representation were to be understood, defended, and systematised. By studying the pedracista coalition this thesis offers, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the nature and dynamics of Mexican politics in the mid-late 1820s, as experienced, discussed, and represented by the short-lasting yet effective alliance that was forged around the candidacy of Manuel Gómez Pedraza.

There is great interest in the development of new polar dielectric ceramics and multiferroic materials with new and improved properties. A family of tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) relaxors of composition Ba₆M³⁺Nb₉O₃₀ (M³⁺ = Ga³⁺, Sc³⁺ and In³⁺, and also their solid solutions) were studied in an attempt to understand their dielectric properties to enable design of novel polar TTB materials. A combination of electrical measurements (dielectric and impedance spectroscopy) and powder diffraction (X-ray and neutron) studies as a function of temperature was employed for characterising the dynamic dipole response in these materials. The effect of B-site doping on fundamental dipolar relaxation parameters were investigated by independently fitting the dielectric permittivity to the Vogel-Fulcher (VF) model, and the dielectric loss to Universal Dielectric Response (UDR) and Arrhenius models. These studies showed an increase in the characteristic dipole freezing temperature (T[subscript(f)]) with increase B-cation radius. Crystallographic data indicated a corresponding maximum in tetragonal strain at T[subscript(f)], consistent with the slowing and eventual freezing of dipoles. In addition, the B1 crystallographic site was shown to be most active in terms of the dipolar response. A more in-depth analysis of the relaxor behaviour of these materials revealed that, with the stepwise increase in the ionic radius of the M³⁺ cation on the B-site within the Sc-In solid solution series, the Vogel-Fulcher curves (lnf vs. T[subscript(m)]) are displaced to higher temperatures, while the degree of relaxor behaviour (frequency dependence) increases. Unfortunately, additional features appear in the dielectric spectroscopy data, dramatically affecting the Vogel-Fulcher fitting parameters. A parametric study of the reproducibility of acquisition and analysis of dielectric data was therefore carried out. The applicability of the Vogel-Fulcher expression to fit dielectric permittivity data was investigated, from the simple unrestricted (“free”) fit to a wider range of imposed values for the VF relaxation parameters that fit with high accuracy the experimental data. The reproducibility of the dielectric data and the relaxation parameters obtained by VF fitting were shown to be highly sensitive to the thermal history of samples and also the conditions during dielectric data acquisition (i.e., heating/cooling rate). In contrast, UDR analysis of the dielectric loss data provided far more reproducible results, and to an extent was able to partially deconvolute the additional relaxation processes present in these materials. The exact nature of these additional relaxations is not yet fully understood. It was concluded application of the Vogel-Fulcher model should be undertaken with great care. The UDR model may represent a feasible alternative to the evaluation of fundamental relaxation parameters, and a step forward towards the understanding of the dielectric processes in tetragonal tungsten bronzes.

This study uses the ‘duchies' of Burgundy and Alemannia as case studies for an examination of the nature and causes of political change in the five decades after the death in 888 of the Emperor Charles the Fat ended the Carolingian monopoly on kingship in the Frankish realms. Existing narratives of this period posit discontinuity between the pre- and post-888 political worlds and define the status of dukes in opposition to royal power as the manifestation of either regional communal identity or self-centred aristocratic greed. Close examination of Burgundy and Alemannia indicates that such approaches are invalid, and that the fundaments of the Carolingian system persisted in the ideology and practice of politics after 888: a desire for the control over land and religious establishments, juxtaposed with a deep-seated belief in the centrality of the kingship to the political order. Dukedoms emerged in both regions not as a result of deep-rooted social forces but as short-term responses by magnates to crises at the centre. The perception that the dukedom was an essential form of political organization failed to take root in either territory prior to 940. Although the status of the dukedoms ultimately developed in different ways in the two kingdoms, it is suggested that the root causes of this are best sought in high politics itself.

Grounded in a theoretical debate between anthropological studies on Roma/Gypsies and anthropological studies of Christianity, the focus of this thesis is on the experience of social and religious life among members of a traditional minority in Finland, the Finnish Kaale/Finnish Roma, a population of approximately 13.000 people living in Finland and Sweden. Over the past decades, the processes of urbanisation and sedentarisation have led to shifts in the ways in which the social lives of Kaale families are lived. A shift towards individualisation is interlinked with the continuous importance placed on family and kin belonging, which come together in a re-assessment of people's central attachments in the world. At the same time, over the same period of time, a large number of this population have converted to Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the country, leading to subtle changes in the shape of social relations within and outside their own community: between believers and non-believers, between Kaale and non-Kaale. Making use of participant observation, interviews, conversion stories and individual life histories among Finnish Kaale living in the capital city of Helsinki and in Eastern parts of the country, this ethnography provides an insight into the multiple, overlapping and complex ways in which Kaale belonging is understood and into the ways in which Pentecostal religious life takes shape among born-again Kaale. Furthermore, looking specifically at the practice of Evangelism and missionary work, which defines the life of Pentecostal Kaale believers, the role of faith as an enhanced engagement with the world is analysed. A conversation therefore emerges also on the role of Pentecostal belonging in mobilising believers in relation to the world around them and, more specifically, on the way in which Pentecostal faith provides an avenue for a further social engagement and social mobilisation of individual Kaale believers.

A cathedral of the Church of England is the seat of the bishop and a centre of worship and mission. The history of this institution is followed from the English Reformation, which it survived, through to the Commonwealth, which it did not. Restored on the return of the monarchy, it then survived with little further trouble until the nineteenth century, when a lot of its income was diverted to the provision of churches and ministers for the populous urban and industrialised areas, which the Church could not fund in any other way. It was the subject of investigation by two Royal Commissions in the nineteenth century and three church-inspired commissions in the twentieth. These commissions stressed the links that should exist between cathedral, bishop and diocese, which the nineteenth century diocesan revival also encouraged, and suggested changes in instruments of governance to achieve this. Some proposals came to nothing, but others were brought into law. Unlike the Roman Catholic cathedral, the Anglican one never lost its autonomy. The religious situation in Britain today is considered in the light of some contemporary sociology and psychology, and it is recognised that the continued decline in the fortunes of the Church is tied up with the massive subjective turn which characterises contemporary culture. The cathedral has not shared the mistrust which faces the Church, and its various roles are discussed in the light of its continued hold on public affection. The conclusions reached are that, although the cathedral now has strong links with bishop and diocese, it should retain its independence within relationships of interdependence with them, to enable it to harness the popularity which it enjoys to remain a centre of worship, but primarily to concentrate on being a centre of mission. Appropriate ways of achieving that are discussed.